New Exhibition TRYING TO FIT IN / GLASS EXHIBIT BY BOB NECHIN

MANIFESTO: There are so many rules and preconceptions floating around that I can’t keep up. Some art experts told me that works in glass can’t be considered “fine art”, and another told me that my works are “decorative”, hence irrelevant. And then there’s a hierarchy that determines what and who is “important” in the world of art. So, I am confused. Because somebody told me one time that if you create something that somehow touches someone, either intellectually or emotionally, then you’ve done what you’re supposed to do. You’ve earned your daily bread as an artist. Only God and/ or History (if you believe in either) can determine who is a great artist and who is not. And I also believe that all this high philosophy — about hierarchies, about what is right and wrong and acceptable — is also relevant to our regular lives and to the general society.

In this exhibition there are a few images of human beings who are trying to fit into society, and I hate to tell you, they don’t stand a chance. Not only are these characters incapable of traveling the “straight and narrow”, they haven’t even found the right roadway. Good luck to them. I can identify with them. There are also two totem pole-like shapes that may be ritual objects in some religion that is not attempting to take over the country. Or maybe not. And there are also shapes that found pleasure in the eyes of the artist as he was creating this exhibition. All the works are glass. You break it you buy it.